Special "Thank you" to a facebook friend for this artwork. It's a beautiful piece...

Counting our blessings this week. We have enough spare fencing that didn't burn to repair what did. Volunteers came this weekend to help. Friends have donated cleaning products for the house. Someone donated hay. We went to the donation yard to pick up feed for a neighbor and came home with a new bottle and milk replacer for our bottle calf, goat feed, and wound medicine for our own needs as well. So the rest of our needs seem to be money for repairs and replacements. Our biggest problem is that the drought had been so hard on us, having extra expenses for hauling water and supplementing an already depleted grazing situation that this has devastated us financially. It just doesn't seem like that much when we know our little 50 acres is nothing compared to the loss of our neighbors, still it's all we've got.

March 20th I attended the county wildfire relief meeting. I was happy to see Senator Inhofe who had just returned from visiting our troops in the Ukraine saying he's very proud of how they are doing. The rest of the meeting was for "Commercial Producers" and all the regulations, stipulations, and paperwork involved in the government programs made me mad. We could tell some of the representatives were almost embarrassed to have to share some of it with us. Most of them did seem to really care. KansasGrassland.org had a wonderful article on some of this... I encourage my neighbors to be very careful about anything they sign.

March 21st, "I walked the fences today. We have enough materials that didn't get burnt to replace the fencing that did. YAY! I even saw grass trying to grow through the ash. I have to say I'm not sad about the sage brush, but those silly yucka plants just don't give up. I also went by Paul's tractor & ditcher & told them how happy I was to see them & Thanked the LORD for HIS blessings. Paul went to help someone near Knowles today who's equipment was decimated."

March 23rd, the wind came up, blowing our topsoil away. I felt awful for the poor livestock and wildlife suffering through sandblasting over their burned hides. How much misery do we have to endure?

​That night a terrible fire lit up in the Texas panhandle again and many of our Oklahoma firemen rushed down to help. Just as they arrived rain began pouring down and put the fire out. Praise God for HIS blessings!

March 24th I wrote, "I only walked out to the truck & what's left of my coffee is undrinkable. We got just enough rain here to settle the dirt & dust storm a little. The new layer of dirt & ash in the house is disheartening. Driving into the donation station & looking over the land gives a whole new depth to the word God-Forsaken ... I know better in my head but my heart hurts.

I'm having a really hard time with this. #LetsBeREAL I've been crying daily since March 6th. That's 20 days so far. And please understand, I'm a cowgirl & cowgirls don't usually cry. We hate to cry. We hate for other people to see us cry. And our cowboys HATE to see us cry, going to GREAT lengths to "fix" whatever broke their cowgirl to make her leak saltwater from her beautiful eyes.

I'm not the only one. When these men see the dead & suffering animals and miles of burnt fence, grass, hay, barns, tractors... They cry too. And when the cowboy cries, EVERYONE cries.

I'd love to write a happy post about happy things... But sometimes reality MUST be what it is. We need these times. You've heard and I'm sure you know very well, it takes rain to make a rainbow and make the grass grow and get the to flowers bloom. When you don't have rain on the prairie dust, farmers and ranchers work harder to nurture the land and livestock. Their wives also work harder to clean the prairie dust from the house and pinch every cent so most of the money goes to the tools he needs to do what he does best.
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Like my dear friends and neighbors said in the video in this AgWeb Farm Journal article, you have to love this life, it is a choice we intentionally make and "Everyone's willing to do what they can do and that's enough and God will take it from there. We have faith God will take it from here."

My heart just aches for you and all the ranchers in the panhandle and Colorado. My family and I continue to follow the stories of the fire victims and pray for you all each day. I grew up on a farm raising row crops and livestock. I still live on a farm today in eastern KS. I cry every time I watch a video or read an article about what you all have been thru. I continually praise God for the overwhelming support from the Ag community in this great country of ours! The convoys that continue to roll thru our area on the way to western KS and OK bring me to tears, but happy ones! God is in control and he always brings good from a bad situation. His people have definitely stepped up to the plate this month and showed this nation that he is definitely still alive and well! God bless you and your family.